The performance of your sales team is determined by your ability to become a great sales leader. However, many sales managers struggle in that capacity because they lack the knowledge, abilities, or skills to assist their sales reps effectively.
Every sales leader must provide three things to their team: direction, guidance, and enthusiastic coaching, all while striving to set an example and be a significant visionary for their company.
With rising competition, every sales manager must react rapidly and lead their team to outperform the competition. To manage a team, you need more than a brilliant manager; you need a leader who understands how to bring out the best in everyone on their team.
What makes an excellent sales leader?
Here are some characteristics that make up a good B2B leader who can lead their team towards sales acceleration.
Good leaders have a vision of the future.
Influential leaders are innovators and creative thinkers. They can explain aims and objectives clearly. If leaders have any prospect of attaining their strategic goal, they must do so.
Good leaders are experts in their industries.
It is expected that leaders are experts in the industries they are part of. This is something they bring to a leadership role. If not, they will need to learn it to be effective in one.
Good leaders are also “good enablers.”
Effective B2B leaders must be ready to promote, invest in, and support the need for a robust sales acceleration that includes defined roles and responsibilities, as well as handoff points for essential processes that generate synergy across revenue-generating departments.
Good leaders can make well-informed judgments based on evidence.
This does not imply that all leaders must be statisticians; however, it does imply that they must have individuals they can trust to evaluate and interpret data correctly.
Adapting to the B2B selling’s shifting landscape
While leadership is critical, we must not overlook the importance of the client in this scenario. Changes in B2B purchasing behavior that had already begun have been accelerated. Client expectations have shifted, and they’re more comfortable with the concept that, even for complicated purchases, a growing portion of seller involvement may be performed through digital and self-service platforms.
So, if we agree that we live in a constantly changing and somewhat unpredictable world, what should strong B2B sales leaders be focusing on in 2022?
Changing to meet the needs of the modern B2B client
Leaders must embrace their present and future clients’ desire for hybrid buying, a mix of digital, self-service, and personal connection.
Consumers must obtain the information they want in the manner and at the time that they choose. Sales executives must collaborate with marketing colleagues to guarantee that clients can get the required information. One of the most apparent ramifications is that sales teams must ensure that this information is consistent, regardless of how consumers consume it.
This also implies that the traditional paradigm, in which sales and marketing “controlled” the top and bottom of the funnel, is entirely incompatible with today’s purchasing habits. Marketing and sales must now work together in both lead generation and demand generation throughout the purchase process.
A technologically savvy salesforce
The previous two years have been a “sink or swim” experience for many sellers accustomed to working in a primarily face-to-face selling setting due to the pandemic and its restrictions. Many people who don’t have the desire or aptitude for selling online have already moved on.
While a good seller doesn’t necessarily have to be a technological expert, they must at least be proficient in recent technological advancements, such as social media and other tools that can be used to, say, monitor compelling event signals that could accelerate sales. They must be just as effective in a conference call as they are in a face-to-face encounter with a prospect.
Leaders must make effective use of the tools at their disposal while remaining wary of attempting to automate jobs that require some level of intelligent and aware human engagement. They must use digital platforms to interact with their consumers and their colleagues.
Laying the groundwork for future technological advancements
Let’s be clear: when used appropriately and carefully, artificial intelligence will eventually play a more significant part in the B2B sales process. It can already assist sellers in identifying trends and trigger signals that will allow them to make better, more educated decisions.
But rather than automating sellers out of complicated B2B sales situations, AI will instead gradually assist in the sales process – potentially in ways we can’t yet fathom or expect.
It is not, however, a magic wand. Unfortunately, the haphazard use of AI and machine learning has made it simpler for less tech-savvy sellers and the companies they work to do foolish things much faster than they could previously.
This year will be a year of careful exploration and implementation of AI technology. Sales leaders that follow this strategy will invariably find themselves on a faster learning curve, allowing them to use these technological advances as they develop fully.
Conclusion
Defining leadership traits and what good leaders must be focusing on is just an initial step. These traits are put into practice and how influential leaders implement these strategies that will eventually lead them and their team to tremendous success and their desired sales acceleration.